Budapest is located in Middle Eastern Euroepe, the capital city of Hungary. I live here and I'd like to give you useful information about Budapest if you want to come here or just interested in. I'll post a lot of picture about Budapest in my photo blog (hotel, accommodation, restaurant, monuments, Castle, Chain Bridge, Parliament) most of them taken by me.

June 07, 2006

Statue Park Budapest

Statue Park Budapest
Communist giants in Budapest. There is a unique place in Budapest where you too can feel the atmosphere of the communist dictatorship. That place is the Statue Park where you can see the bewildering statues of the old days. There is a famous quote from Karl Marx: “A spectre is haunting Europe – the spectre of communism.” Well this spectre was successfully dispelled, but now and again it can still be evoked. That’s the mission of the Statue Park Budapest, where all those Soviet style statues are collected.
They used to stand along the streets of Budapest, but where removed following the political changes of 1989-90. Here is the grandiose Lenin statue in front of which on red-letter days people where forced to march in praise of the socialist system and the Soviet Union – USSR. You can see the cubist granite statue of Marx and Engels who stared with frowning eyes of the country’s leaders in front of the headquarters of the communist party. The Red Army’s military and heroic monuments stand here, once compulsory respected. Formidable statues of revolutionists; martyrs of the Hungarian and international labor movement; and the communist leaders – some who executed others – ended up in the Statue Park Budapest that is all together in the madhouse.
Statue Park Budapest main entrance
It is not only the gigantic stars of the red-letter days who you can come across in the statue park; you can get to know the memories of the drab and tough everyday world of the socialism as well. There is for example a non-operating phone in the telephone booth, or you can even sit in the socialist block’s popular “paper car” the Eastern German Trabant.
The vintage radio at the entrance plays revolutionary and labor movement songs which can be purchased on CD or tape in the Statue Park’s gift shop. Everything in the shop follows the name of the Statue Park and the communist era: Trabant models, Lenin candles, original Soviet postcards, cigarette lighters with the sickle and hammer, red star watches, pocket-bottles with the KGB’s emblem, Soviet badges of honor, Lenin statue replicas, etc. The red Army’s flags, festive badges and books video tapes, CD-ROMs about the Statue Park Budapest and the communist era – all only there. T-shirts ironic scripts, posters and other funny gifts are available as well; after all Marx also said: “Laughing, mankind bids farewell to its past.”
The Statue Park Budapest is an unusual place, there is nothing like it in Central Europe. This is one of the most interesting sights in Budapest, and at the same time a memorial to communism’s fall.
Gigantic monuments from the communist dictatorship. Budapest district XXII. (south Buda) cornet of Balatoni ut and Szabadkai ut.
Statue Park a last glimpse behind the iron curtain. Removed statues of Lenin, Karl Marx, and Engels and other communist heroes, soldiers, of the Soviet red army, revolutionists.
The most exciting open air Museum in Eastern Europe after the fall of the communist Dictatorship.
Special souvenirs of the proletarian dictatorship, revolutionary marches on CD, pictures, statue replicas, Russian gifts, Trabant models, etc. in the museum's shop.
Getting to the Statue Park Budapest by public transport:

On the Etele ter bus terminal (Volanbus station) take the bus from stand 7-8 yellow bus to Erd-Diosd to the Statue Park stop about 15 minutes ride. Tickets to the yellow bus available only in the bus terminal building with "Volanbus" sign.
Direct bus from Budapest Downtown at 11 am every day (in July and August even at 3 pm).
The bus leaves from the stop marked with the Statue Park schedule on Deak ter. Deak ter easily reached by Metro (subway) line 1, 2 or 3.
Prices in 2006:
Entrance ticket: 600 HUF
Entrance ticket + direct bus: 2450 HUF
For students and Budapest Card holders only 1950 HUF
Entrance ticket + direct bus + guiding in English: 4450 HUF
The Statue park Budapest open every day from 10 am till sunset. For more info visit the www.szoborpark.hu website.

I was in Budapest about a month ago. This is definitely a place worth visiting. If there is a guide leading a tour it is definitely worth your time to ease drom in on the tour. You will get so much more out of it with a guide.